No More Lies by Kerry Lonsdale EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Author: Kerry Lonsdale
- Genre: Sibling Fiction, Domestic Thrillers
- Publish Date: 10 May 2022
- Size: 2 MB
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Status: Avail for Download
- Price: Free
Jenna Mason jogs across the Washington Middle School parking lot, racing
the morning bell. She absently waves at the parents huddled beside Beth
Hopkin’s white BMW X5. Snippets of their conversation reach her—
aggressive reporter, chasing a lead—that would have alarmed her a few years
ago. She would have asked what the reporter was chasing. She would have
wondered if she needed to run.
Their chattering abruptly stops. They stare at her. Then Beth whispers to
Leigh Duffy. Shock paints Leigh’s expression, and Jenna wonders if they’re
talking about her. She’s an enigma, newer to the close-knit community, who
for the most part keeps to herself. Once, she might have felt a prickle of
unease across her shoulders. Jenna is sure she’s a curiosity. But right now
she’s rushed and irritated. Josh left his homework binder behind again.
She’s enabling her son, she knows that.
A sensible parent would let him
face the consequences from not turning in his homework on time. Tough love
would teach him to pack his book bag before bed and have it ready by the
door come morning. She could drop his binder off at the front office, but then
she’d have to talk to people. Socialize. Interact. Leave an impression. Things
ingrained in her to avoid. Habits she hasn’t quite shaken since she and Josh
settled in Oceanside, California.
Some days, she envies how easily her son has made friends.
But he doesn’t have a past he needs to hide from. People he’s running
from.
Jenna cuts through the schoolyard. Kids congregate in their cliques like
dolphin pods. They fuss with their phones, snapping and tiktokking or
whatever it is kids do these days. Josh has tried to explain, but since she
won’t buy him a smartphone or allow him online unsupervised, she hasn’t
gone out of her way to learn more about social media. She avoids it and
intends to keep Josh off if possible. She can’t risk him posting something to
his profile that could lead her past to their front door.
Josh has given her an earful about his flip phone. He prefers to not use it
over getting mocked for having one, which she could guess is why he didn’t
answer when she called him about the binder a few minutes after he left the
house to walk to school.
At least she hopes that’s why. Her heart beats furiously as she reins in
her panic that something happened on his way to school and that’s why he
couldn’t answer his phone. A constant fear she’ll never get over, not with her
past.
She beelines to the lunch tables under the green-and-gold canopy, the
school’s colors, where she knows Josh sits with his friend Anson before class
starts. She’s watched him some mornings through the chain-link fence that
borders the school grounds when he thought she already left for home. He’s
growing up fast. Hard to believe he’ll be thirteen. Even harder to accept she’s
been living a lie just as long.
Anson sees her before Josh does and waves. Relief floods her when she
spots her son next to him. He’s here. He’s safe.
“Hello, Ms. Mason.”
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